Thursday, November 19, 2009

It never happened again.

Some time ago, we pointed to a web discussion that had gravitated towards the subject of Bill Shatner's hair. Some people were wondering if the original series Star Trek episode "Shore Leave" didn't show Bill Shatner's toupee dislodged, revealing a bald patch on his head during one of the fight scenes.

The truth is, unsurprisingly, that the bald head actually belongs to a stuntman playing Captain Kirk. Yet, there is something curious to be noted here. A stuntman is supposed to look like you, right? A stuntman is supposed to be filmed in such a way that you can't tell that it isn't the real actor. That being the case, Bill Shatner would likely have seen this episode once it aired and noticed that in certain shots the person portraying Kirk had a noticable bald patch emerging from underneath a rather fragile combover. "What if people don't know it's a stunt man?" he might have asked himself: "What if they think it is me as they are supposed to?"

Suffice to say, it never happened again. Following this epsiode, Kirk stunt doubles would always (we think) have as much hair as Captain Kirk was supposed to have, and usually more. The star's image was, quite rightly, protected...

If one watches the final fight scene between Kirk and Garth-as-Kirk in 'Whom Gods Destroy', it appears the stunt double is wearing one of Shatner's spare toupees. This I think is meant to add to the confusion as to who really is Kirk and so forth.

"And while in my lifetime I've seen science make extraordinary inroads into solving the most complex questions of life, after all this time I admit that I am thrilled that there are some things that forever will remain a mystery. For example, do I wear a toupee?"

"May I say that this is the most delightful blog I have discovered in many a moon. It's informative without being cruel, and there's genuine affection for Mr. Shatner. Well done." - A reader's kind comment.

Commenting

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